sunny side up
by wrong light
Summary: adoption fic.Naruto as raised by Deidara. what with akatsuki showing up at every turn and Deidara under suspicion from sarutobi what could posibly go wrong. life is like art its a blast, yeah?
1. ignition

**Sunny Side Up**

Disclaimer: what do you mean I don't own Naruto? I've got them right here. Waves fish cakes Please read the whole chapter; I swear this guy isn't an OC!

It was a bright sunny day in Konoha, the kind of day the village was famous for. All around people were going about their lives. Buying, selling, walking, talking, and just generally enjoying themselves. It made him happy to see that Konohagakure was just as friendly a place as he had been led to believe… yeah, this village hidden in the leaves seemed like just the place to settle down after that… fiasco that was the last village.

The man looked around, his long blond hair catching in the wind. Some people where staring, but that was to be expected. It wasn't everyday you saw someone with a dark green, high-collar coat in the middle of summer. Even though the man didn't exactly appreciate the stares he was getting, he did his best to ignore them and left his coat on. Besides, the shinobi armor he had on under it would have been worse.

The first thing to do, he decided, was to get some new clothes. Then he would find a vacant shop to buy, preferably one that could double as a house for him to live in… yeah… that sounded good. With that, he could practice his art and trade in peace. How hard could it be to start up business as a potter?

Just then, the 19 year old was jolted out of his thoughts as a yellow and white blur narrowly avoided running him down. It took him a moment to realize that the blur was actually a kid. A kid with bright spiky blond hair and a smile that somehow looked, well wrong. That is to say wrong in some way other than the fact that it was threatening to split the kids face in half….

It wasn't until he saw the two full grown men chasing the kid that he realized what it was that had had been bothering him. In spite of the kid's overly large smile, it was obvious that he was scared shitless . You could see it in his eyes. The kid wove through the crowd almost running over half the people, in one case even sliding between a startled young lady's legs in an attempt to lose his pursuers. That didn't work very well for the little guy, though. The two men chasing him managed to keep up with him, even if some of the boy's maneuvers caused them a bit of awkwardness.

All in all it was quite an amusing sight and the man was about to continue going about his business when one of the men shouted something he couldn't ignore.

"You damned demon! When I catch you I'm going to wring your neck!"

The man's words brought a flood of memories to the man's mind. Memories he had tried to forget.

"_**How could you invent such an ugly jutsu!"**_

"_**Just look at yourself! You're more demon than man now you fool!"**_

"_**You're not my son. My son isn't a monster"**_

With those memories came ones of the boy's terrified eyes.

"Stupid conscience", the man said under his breath before moving after the boy and his pursuers.

Naruto wouldn't have said he was afraid, he would have yelled about how he was going to be Hokage and how a Kage was never afraid, even though he would have been lying. All he did was steal a loaf of bread, so he would have something to hold him over until the next support check from the Hokage arrived tomorrow.

However, the two men chasing him seemed to see it as a big deal. So he stole a little bread. So what? It wasn't like they didn't have more. He spared an idle moment to wonder who was watching their stand if both of the owners were chasing him. He then ducked around a corner into an alley.

That was a mistake. The alley was a dead end. Behind him, he heard the two men enter the alley. He turned to face them and backed up until he was almost touching the wall. They were sure taking their time getting it over with, They approached him slowly and the larger of the two cracked his knuckles. Then suddenly without warning, the other lunged forward, fist raised. Naruto cringed and waited for the blow to connect.

**Thud.**

The blow had connected, but not with Naruto. Naruto opened his eyes to see what had happened. He was surprised to see a man wearing a dark green coat that reached his knees, black cargo pants, and what appeared to be some strange variation on standard ninja sandals standing between him and his attackers, the baker's fist caught in one gloved hand.

That was all Naruto had time to register as the man blurred into motion. The baker gave a startled gasp as he was pulled forward by his fist, and a second later the newcomer's knee flashed forward, slaming the baker in the gut. The man spun on his still grounded foot, dragging the startled baker around in a complete circle before tossing him into the larger man. Both men hit the ground hard.

Naruto blinked. The whole scene had only taken less than a second. The man turned to Naruto, and Naruto couldn't help but notice that he too had blond hair and blue eyes.

"Are you alright kid?" the man asked. Naruto could only nod in response. The man turned back to the two villagers who had gotten to their feet.

"Who the hell are you?" one shouted.

The only response he got was "Catch, yeah?" as the man threw a bluish-white object at him. Reflexively, the larger of the two did just that and stared blankly at the small object for a second before it exploded into a cloud of blue-green smoke.

Before Naruto knew what was happening his savior had grabbed him around the waist and leapt off the ground, off a windowsill, then off a fire escape, and suddenly standing on the roof of the three-story building that had made up the alley's left wall. He knelt down next to Naruto and looked back down into the alley.

The man was admiring the results of his little toy, watching as the two men on the ground were trying to figure out what had happened, when he felt eyes on him and remembered the kid.

The boy was staring at him, eyes wide, and for the first time the man noticed the dark whisker-like lines on his face. The kid continued to stare at him, as if waiting for him to grow another head. It was somewhat unnerving….

"…What?" he asked, trying to figure out what the kid was looking at. The kid opened his mouth.

"THAT WAS SOOOOO COOOOOOL!!!" The words practically exploded from the boy, and despite the volume, Deidara couldn't keep the grin off his face.

"Art's a blast, yeah?"

((((((((((AN))))))))))

Told you it wasn't an OC. Well I wrote this because of how many adoption fics there are out there and the lack of fics with Deidara. Depending on the response, I might continue it, but I have absolutely no clue on pairings.


	2. ground

**Sunny side up,**

**Chapter 2: ground**

It was a bright sunny day in Konoha, the kind of day the village was famous for and Deidara was feeling good. Saving the kid had turned out to be one of the best things he could have done. The small blonde-haired gaki was named Naruto, and Naruto had known where to find exactly what Deidara was looking for. After they had safely reached the ground once more Deidara had asked the half-pint if he knew a good place to eat, only to be dragged through the streets to a small ramen stand called Ichiraku Raman. that little stop had led to one of the most beneficial conversations Deidara had ever had.

_**FLASHBACK OF YOUTH!**_

"slow down for a second gaki, your going to pull my arm off ,yeah." The shorter blond had only laughed and pulled faster.

"Don't worry nii-san, we're almost there!, that's it right over here!" Naruto was pointing to a roadside restaurant, the kind that had flaps in place of one wall. It looked sort of run down but the smell was heavenly so Deidara didn't hesitate to follow the little gaki inside.

Narruto wasted no time hopping up onto one of the stools and shouting (quite loudly). "Hey, old man! I'm ready to order!" the large, middle-aged man, stirring broth behind the counter turned with a smile when he heard Naruto's voice. The man, who Deidara assumed was Ichiraku, did a slight double take when he saw Deidara move to sit next to the smaller blond.

Ichiraku moved with the understated grace of a retired shinobi. Deidara had probably slipped in with out him noticing. He had to stop himself from chuckling at that, poor guy was probably beating himself up for letting someone so young get the drop on him.

To the man's credit he got himself back on track fairly quickly, taking both orders and conveying them on to the girl in the back before coming back to chat it up with his customers.

"So Naruto, who's your friend?" he sent a glance towards Deidara.

Naruto seemed to ponder this for a second. Then, grinning in that way he had that looked like his head would split in to he said "I don't know, but he's really cool!" the last part came out half way between a cheer and a scream., and Deidara felt his forehead hit the table in shock. In a blur of motion he was facing naruto.

"My name is Deidara, DE-I-DA-RA! If your going to drag someone halfway across the leaf to buy you ramen at least remember there name!"

Naruto's response was swift and rather poorly planed out. " why do I need to know your name if I'm just going to call you nii-san?" Deidara's response was cut of when Ichiraku burst out into great thunderous peals of laughter.

The ramen chef ran one finger under his eye as if to clear away a tear. "Well bless my soul, you two are quite a lively bunch aren't you?" the girl in the back chose that moment to come round with the ramen. She sat narutos bowl down and he was on it in an instant. Deidara was fascinated by the way Naruto ate, never had he seen anything like it, the boy practically inhaled his noodles.

His attention was pulled away from Naruto by the ramen girl setting down Deidara's own bowl in font of him. She leaned on the counter a crossed the way from him and pulled her tray to her chest. "So how did you two run into each other, Deidara-san?"

Naruto chose to answer for him. "it was AWSOME! There where these guys and Nii-san was all like! BAM, KAPOW, SHAZOW! And he kicked one in the face!" with out stopping for air he immediately tucked into the second bowl that had mysteriously appeared in front of him.

Ichiraku turnd to look at Deidara, eyes hard. "You where attacking Knoha citizens?"

Deidara calmly picked up and split his chopsticks before responding. "Three grown men, picking on a kid is hardly what I'd call a fair fight, yeah?" Ichiraku frowned in confusion for a second before a look of realization crossed his face, and he looked over at the blond boy.

He called out to the girl "Ayame" she perked up, waiting "get Deidara-san another bowl, its on the house." The girl, Ayame, scurried back to the kitchen with a nod. Ichiraku turned back to his customer. "So what brings you to Konoha Deidara-San?"

This was what the former Iwa-nin had been waiting for, a chance to spread his cover story, to blend in and find a quiet life. " I'm looking to set up shop, you see I'm an artist." He paused for a moment to except his second bowl from Ayame, and thanked her with a smile, which was returned. "I work with clay, yeah? Pottery, sculptures that kind of thing, but here's the thing just recently I found a way to make my clay explode!" another pause this time to take a sip of water. He looked around they where hanging on his every word. Naruto had even stopped eating ramen (though this might have had more to do with his empty bowl than anything else) and Ayame took the opportunity to ask a question.

"Why would you want to do something like that?" Deidara chuckled at that.

"I didn't mean to really it was sort of an accident, didn't even know I had done it tell I tried to fire some of it" Ichiraku winced.

"ouch."

Deidara nodded "yeah, the blast got most of my workshop and a little of the tailor's next door. So there I was with a secret recipe for exploding clay, and a pressing need of a new place to live, so I thought to my self, why waist what I've been given,yeah? Who would need exploding clay." He trailed off and old man Ichiraku filled in the gap.

"Shinobi" at Deidaras nod he continued. "but from your accent I can tell your from the earth country, why move to konoha?"

the self proclaimed artist mentally cursed, he hadent anticipated that one… oh well when in doubt tell the closest thing to the truth you can get away with. "Well I did my research you see and the leaf seemed like the friendliest environment to settle down in." Deidara, cheered in his mind as he saw Ichiraku smile, now he was definitely in the old mans good book!

Ayame spoke up, "deidara-kun" kun?, Deidara wondered where had that come from. "have you found a place to start up yet?"

The artist shook his head. "I just arrived to day and I ran into this gaki almost as soon as I got inside. He ruffled Naruto's hair as he said it, causing the boy to give an indignant squeak that set Ayame giggling.

Ichiraku spoke up. "Isn't that place cross the way from the yamanaka flower shop still for sale?"

Ayame pressed a finger to her lips in thought. "I think so… I haven't been by in a while but it should still be there." Deidara perked up, this sounded like exactly the kind of thing he was looking for.

"could you tell me where it is?" Ichiraku did a near perfect impression of his daughters 'thinking pose'

"I'll do you one better" he said looking around "we haven't had any other customers all day, and well" he looked over at Ayame, "What do you say we show our new friend around town, Ayame?" the girl didn't even bother answering she just started closing up shop. The stand owner turned back to Deidara. "Now about the bill." Deidara didn't even bother asking how much it was, he simply reached into his cloak and removed several bills from the hidden pocket, there where quite a few of them. Deidara had most definitely **not** left his clan home empty handed.

"This should cover it" he put the bills on the counter. He couldn't help but smirk at the expression on the old mans face when he saw how much there was.

Groundgroundground

Deidara decided it was a very nice looking store. He was standing inside the good-sized workshop it had for a ground floor. He had purchased it almost straight away after he had gotten the tour.

It was exactly the kind of place he had been looking for. The upper floor had been divided up into a spacious 6-room apartment (2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small kitchen, and a living room.) his new friends had spent the rest of the day helping him move in, which other then a brake during where the other three explained to Naruto why and how Deidara had most of a house sealed in a scroll on his back, ("its easier then dragging all this tuff around in wagons or soothing, yeah?") went off with out a hitch.

Now the sun was setting and the Ichirakus where saying there good byes. Deidara liked the Ichirakus, he was going to have to visit the stand a lot, he decided if only just so he could talk with them. As the father, daughter pair turned the corner Naruto spoke up.

"Deidara-san?

The gaki had been uncharacteristically quiet as for the last hour or so. That and the formal way Naruto was addressing him led him to believe that the kid had been thinking about this for awhile. Deidara gave him his full attention. "Yeah? What is it?"

"what you did before…. Could you teach me to fight like that?"

the artist grinned at the blond beside him. "Oh? Why do you want me to do that?"

"well going into the ninja academe this year…." The boy trailed off, unsure how to finish.

"ah so you want to be a ninja, yeah?"

Naruto nodded vigorously. "YEAH! I'm going to be the best ninja ever! BELIVE IT!" Diedara couldn't help himself… he started cracking up, and before to long he was flat out laughing.

This obviously upset Naruto, who immediately began to yell. "Don't laugh! Im going to be Hokage someday! I'm going to be the best Hokage ever, you'll see!" Deidara, decided it was about time to stop the little guy before he hurt himself.

With a hint of laughter still in his voice the artist cut Naruto off just as he was getting to the part about taking out fifty ninja at once. "Naruto I'm not saying you can't do it, its just… don't say 'believe it' like that ever again it makes you look like an idiot." Seeing Naruto was about to run at the mouth again, deidara suddenly became serious. "if you want to become a kage your going to have to work for it, it wont be easy, you'll have to work really hard, and once you start you cant stop, I wont let you. Are you still up for it?"

The older blond couldn't help but smile at Narutos yawning smile and triumphant declaration of "Hell yeah!"

_**Flash back end.**_

That had been a week ago. One week of getting up at the crack of dawn to go wake Naruto then spending 3 hours teaching him the basics of taijutsu. One week of going to Ichirakus every day. A week of afternoons spent with Naruto setting up the ground floor of Deidara's new home so that it resembled a workable store. That's where they where right now in the front of the workshop haveing just put the last few statues and elaborate vases in the display case.

Now it was time for the big moment the one they had been working towards all week. Naruto looked up at the older blond he had come to think of as a sort of big brother.

"Deidara-sempai? Are you sure you want me to do it? I mean… its your store."

Deidara smiled down at him "of course Naruto! You've helped me a lot with this you deserve to be the one to do it." Naruto swallowed and with a shaking hand reached out to the object in front of him. He grasped it lightly as if afraid it might brake…. And then slowly and carefully switched the sign in the window from closed to open.

"Yatta!" the two blonds called out together, it was immediately followed by an awkward silence that seemed somehow empty. "That's it?" Naruto sounded disappointed.

Deidara rolled his visible eye "What where you expecting gaki, fireworks?" oh fireworks… now there was an idea, maybe he could look into selling fire works too… you could mack some great art out of those…. Yeah….

He was jolted out of his pyrotechnic train of thought (which promptly exploded because you just jolt something carrying that much nitroglycerin) by Naruto's voice."If there's nothing else to do then I'm going to visit the old man, you want to come?"

Deidara shook his head in amusement. "Naruto-kun ive got to stay here and tend the store." Naruto looked confused…

"why?"

Diedara sighed, sometimes naruto was amazingly insightfull, others he made Deidara want to slam his head into a wall. "Because if I don't then I cant sell anything."

Naruto's only response was "oh" before he walked out the front door mumbling something about convincing the 'old man' to give him ramen. Deidara snorted at the vary idea. Convincing Ichiraku to give free ramen was like trying to convince a rock it was a tree.

Unfortunately Deidara had no reason to think that maybe Naruto wasn't talking about Ichiraku. After all who would ever believe a little gaki like him would be friends with the Hokage.

(A.N.)

hehe sorry this took me so long to get out. Work has been a real female dog recently… yeah so the pairing is either going to be naruino or narutemari. The real question is who should I pair Daidara up with? I'm thinking ayame.

Also who do you want to see on naruto's team? Please explain why in your response the ones with the best explanation will be the winner.

Also my beta was out of town sorry about the errors.


	3. Live wires

Sunny Side up,

Sunny Side up,

Chapter 3: Live Wires

It was a beautiful day in Konoha, the kind of day the village was famous for. The sun was shining and birds where singing. It was the type of day where family's went and had picnics at the park, and shinobi flocked to the training fields for a bit of light sparing. It was in short, Sarutobi thought as he stared out of his office window, the kind of day he had come to hate.

It wasn't that he hated picnics or any thing, quite the opposite in fact, he wanted nothing more then to go out on a picnic, maybe take a walk and let the sun warm his old bones. No Sarutobi Hated sunny days because he couldn't go out and enjoy them, trapped as he was by the massive amount of paper work he had to do as Hokage.

With a sigh, the elderly Kage turned back to his work, perhaps he could finish up before the next batch arrived and eat lunch outside. There wasn't much left he could do it but he would have to be quick about it. There was a petition from the blacksmith's gilled about creating standardized pricing of kunai and other ninja tools. Three different mission reports from various ranked missions that had, for some reason or another deserved his personal attention, and last but not least he had to finalize this years addition of the bingo book.

Bingo Books where an interesting conglomeration of fact and rumor, used to inform a villages resident shinobi facts about ninja, whether they be missingnin or from another village, they might encounter while on the job. But more then that, they where probably THE biggest show of inter cooperation between villages. Even more so then the chunin examns, because having an accurate and useful Bingo Book involved potently giving away village secrets.

No village willingly gave up information on its shinobi, to do so would be an act of unforgivable stupidity that would undoubtedly get said Ninja killed. That was where the rumor part of the bingo book came into play. Since villages did not simply Give up their secrets, the Bingo Book entries on most ninja had to be woven together from first hand accounts of those who had seen the ninja fight, the reputation of the nin in question, and such facts as where public knowledge such as rank and clan. There was only one acceptation to this rule.

When a ninja betrays his or her village, it is seen as the most heinous of crimes. The sworn duty of a shinobi is to defend and serve their village until they breathe their last breath. So when a Shinobi abandons the village they were born in, the village they swore to protect, the village tends to take it personally. The layer of protection granted to that ninja by the village is striped away. In the villages eyes the ninja becomes someone to be killed on sight, some one whose continued existence threatens the village from which he or she came.

So the question was what do you do with a file of classified information on someone you wanted dead? The answer came with the ending of the second shinobi war. The war had been started by a disgruntled missing-nin from Kumo who had been passed over for the position of Raikage. In order to take revenge on his rival he had assassinated the nidame Mizukage's younger brother who was the leader of the seven swordsmen of the time.

The resulting war had eventfully ended when the missing-nin that had started it all was captured buy Kiri and the truth came out, but not before it had lasted for 2 years and involved eight different shinobi villages.

In the wake of peace talks fallowing the war, it had been decided that villages would inform each other of confirmed missing-nin in order to prevent another war. Eventually this developed from a simple list of names and descriptions, into a sort of 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' of classified information. The reports now contained everything from blood type to favored tactics, to a brief biography and reason for leaving the village. Most of the time a missing-nin's files arrived in the other villages within days of the ninja's desertion. However while the information was readily available it just wasn't cost effective to print new Bingo Books for all the ninja in a village every time a new report came in. so reports where stored and once a year the would be compiled and a new book would be made.

As Hokage it was Sarutobi's duty to sort and rank the new missing-nin by order of how skilled a ninja they where. In order to do this he was forced to read file after file of personal information on new Missing-nin. It was a long and generally boring task. The vast majority of missing-nin tended to be genin rank shinobi who ran after they had their first taste of killer intent.

The sandame Hokage worked dilgently through the files from Suna (3 genin and their jonin instructor had run off for unknown reasons) and Kiri (a pair of chunin and three of the seven swordsmen had fled after a failed bid at overthrowing the Mizukage) and was about to start on the records from Iwa when there was a knock at his door.

Sarutobi glared twords the entrance to his office, if this was that damned new chunin bringing his finished work in early again… the knock came again. The sandame shook his head and schooled his face into a nutural expreshion and called out for who ever it was to come in.

"enter."

Almost before the word had left his mouth the door cracked open and a head of blond hair puled up out of clear blue eyes by a green pair of goggles peeked through the gap.

The Hokage smiled softly, naruto, of course it was Friday, naruto always came to see him on Fridays.

"come on in naruto"hearing this the blond's face lighte up in a smile and he came rushing into the room with a cry of "OJIJI!" Naruto sprinted over to the desk, and pulling himself up onto it, planted himself solidly on the corner left open for just that purpose. All the while, his mouth didn't stop.

"did you miss me old man? What are you doing? Are you busy? Can we go get ramen? When are you going to let me be a ninja? Ive been training real hard! Im going to be Hokage before you know it old man."

Sarutobi settled back into his chair, and let the barrage of questions wash over him. Naruto would setle down in a minuet or two. The Hokage knew the boy was just getting everything out of his system and didn't realy expect awnsers yet, but Sarutobi listned anyway, sometimes naruto's questions gave away things. Things naruto was to stubborn to ask for help with, things like being over charged on food could be seen in questions like "did you know eggs are more money when you get them in the morning?" that particular question had led to charges against a local day clerk.

That was how most of the questions started. ' did you know' or something similar.

After the the first few questions that he always started off with all of Naruto's Questions where aimed at showing of his knowledge. Naruto had figured out early on that the easiest way to draw praise from sarutobi was to show off what he had learned. Soon after he had learned that the old man was easily annoyed by bragging. Buy putting it in the form of a question he could show off with out seeming like he was showing off, so that was what he did.

The sudden silence created when naruto ran out of things to ask the old hokage from his thoughts. He smiled warmly down at the boy as he mentally replayed what his ears had heard while his mind had been wandering. (A skill he had picked up not to improve himself as a ninja but rather to allow himself to daydream during council meetings) and came to an interesting realization.

Some how over the last week since he had seen Naruto the hyperactive blond had learned a surprising amount about two subjects, running a small business and pottery.

This definitely needed looking into.

"Naruto" The boy looked up at him from where he had been fiddling with one of Sarutobi's paperweights. Honestly the boy had the attention span of a gold fish sometimes. "Have you taken up sculpting?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side in confusion. "sculptin, old man?"

Again sarutobi smiled, "working with clay Naruto, you seem to know a lot about it." He would leave off on trying to find out exactly _why_ naruto knew the exact number of forms that had to be filled out in order to start a new business in Konoha's market ditrict, hopefully answering one would answer the other. "I thought you might have started taking lessons."

Naruto's face scrunched up into an expression of distaste at the word Lessons, it was almost as bad as the hated 'Homework'.

"no way old man! I learned it all my self from helping Deidara-sempai. Not only that but I'm helping him run his store too!" the old Hokage lifted a eyebrow, Deidara huh? It sounded like Naruto had made a friend. Not only that but he was Deidara-_SEMPAI_. Who ever this person was, he had done something that had impressed Naruto enough for the Boy to use a respectful honorific.

"who is this Deidara person? I don't think I've ever met someone with that name." the light that suddenly appeared in Narutos eyes told Sarutobi to prepare for another verbal assault.

"Deidara-sempai is AMAZING! When I first met him he was a hiya! And then…." And so it began. The two talked for an hour maybe more before the aging hokage made his excuses and sent naruto off with some spending money.

In the end Sarutobi had managed to piece together what had happened. Apparently, this Deidara fellow was new to Konoha and didn't know about Naruto. The man had intervened on Naruto's behalf using basic rock taijutsu that combined with Naruto's description of the young-man meant that Deidara would most likely turn out to be a washout From Iwa's ninja academe who had learned the family trade and then moved to get out from under his parents. It was a road quite a few civilians who had once been Genin hopefuls.

Afterward naruto had take his new friend to the Ichiraku family ramen stand. No doubt in hope of free ramen, but that was beside the point. What the point was was that this meant Deidara had most assuredly met Mr. Ichiraku himself. Ichiraku had been a ninja once, though he had never made it past chunin. The man had been an exalent ninja, the type that every genin hoped to be, he had been on jiraiya's genin team along with Minato and passing the Chunin exam on his first try. He had come up against the then Tsuchikage during the 4th ninja war, and had been injured badly enough that he would never be a ninja again, it had only been Minato's timely intervention that had saved his life.

Every report Sarutobi had ever read about the man agreed on one thing. The man was a genius when it came to reading people. Sarutobi liked to believe it was this and not Ichirakus close bonds to the 4th that led to him forming a conection with Naruto.

All in all the fact that Ichiraku hadn't come to the Hokage about this meant that Deidara hadn't born Naruto or the village any ill will. Ichiraku would have been able to tell. Still the man was an immigrant from a foreign shinobi village and Sarutobi could never be too careful, maybe he would stop by later and have a chat.

He was jerked back to the here and now when a chunin came in and placed another folder on the desk. He stared bloody murder at the mans back as he left. Then with a heavy sigh he picked up the next missing-nin report this time the one From iwa.

Moments later the room was empty.

A manila folder hit the floor spilling out the single page inside.

at the top of the page above a smirking photo of a man with long blond hair was the heading: Bakuha Deidara: **S-RANK**

--((((AN))))--

OMG! I am so sorry. This took forever to get out but I had finals…. Senior finals and acts and the like, but its all good now expect the next one soon.

Im quite proud about my pick for Deidara's clan name, whoever can tell me what it means gets a cookie.


	4. red or blue?

Sunny Side up,

**Sunny Side up,**

**Chapter 4: the ****Red or the blue?**

Deidara loved the feel of the wet clay running under his fingers as the potter's wheel spun. It was nice to be working with true art once more even if in the end it would become a rigid changeless thing. He fround at the thought of his beautiful clay being used as a vase.

Maybe it could be an exploding vase?

The blond sighed. no there where to many problems with that. The man who had ordered it had been a ninja he would most likely survive and then he would know that it was the vase and deidara would be exposed…. Besides it wouldn't due to blow up his new neighbors in the first week. Especaly when the man… Inochi was it? Yeah, that was his name was likely to become a loyal customer.

Inochi had entered the store just after Naruto had left. Tall and muscular Deidara would have known the man was a ninja even without the headband he had wrapped around his head. the man had been very polite and the two had talked for a while. Apparently, Inochi owned the flower shop crossed the way, not only that but the man had been eagerly awaiting the Grand opening of Deidara's clay works. The only other potter was all the way on the other side of town and the Yamanaka flower shop needed a near constant supply of display vases.

Buying said vases from Deidara would save the Yamanakas hundreds of Ryo in shipping coasts. And so, they had struck up a deal, every month Inochi would pay Deidara for the creation of 40 vases and would walk over a couple times a week to pick up however many had been made. It was a win-win situation for sure.

That's what Deidara was doing now, creating the first set, bent over a potters wheel in the workshop of his Store/home. A bare little room with the tools of his new traid, a kiln, his work bench littered with brushes and pots of glaze, and of course the row appon row of wire shelves on which he would store his completed works.

He worked masterfully. A flick of the wrist here, a curl of the fingers there and th wheel did the rest. The work went quickly and soon Deidara was on his third vase, it was then as he was centering the clay, that he heard the door chime.

The chime meant a visitor, a visitor was a potential customer and customers were equal to more money. Given this Deidara stopped what he was doing and came round the dividing wall into the storefront with a large grin.

"Hello and welcome to Sunny Side Clay Works, yeah? What can I …." Deidara's sales pitch trailed off as he saw exactly _who_ it was standing in his reception area.

There in all his official red and white glory, was the sandame Hokage. The Professor himself had come to call. He was standing arms folded in front of him hands pushed up into the sleeve of the other arm.

To be completely honest Deidara was in shock not only that the man had found out about him, and from the edge of steel in the old man's eyes Deidara had little doubt that he knew exactly who Deidara was, but rather the fact that the he had come alone. To Diedara it seemed the height of carelessness, unless of course the Professor believed he was capable of beating someone of deidara's abilities one on one.

That thought sent a shiver down his spine.

The blonde's mind was moving at the sped of light trying to figure out how in the name of art he was going to get out of this one. He couldn't use his clay for several reasons, if there were to be a blast in this enclosed space it would kill him as well as the hokage, but if he where to take the fight outside and get to the proper range then the Sandame would open up with his legendary arsenal of jutsu. The sheer amount of chakra used in such a fight would be noticeable even to the dead. No Deidara would stick to taijutsu, he might even have the advantage in hand to hand, the Hokage was most likely beginning to feel his age…

Deidara had no more time to think because at that moment the Hokage stated to pull his hands from his sleeves and fearing a weapon of some kind the ex rock nin charged.

He moved straight in trying to close the gap between them, and then body flickered straight through the Hokage just in time to avoid a face smashing high kick that should have been impossible for someone so old to pull off.

Deidara dropped low and swung his foot round in an undercut, attempting to sweep Sarutobi off his feet but the old man was ready. With one leg still in the air from the kick he pushed off with the other foot, at the same time twisting back and to the left. It put the professor into a horizontal spin, as Diedara's kick scythed under him the Hokage let his spin carry him until he was over the blonds head where he arced out his arm and brought a sort of round house punch down and around to smash into Deidara's back.

The force of that punch sent him tumbling and sliding across the floor towards the back wall. Just as Sarutobi righted himself and started to follow Deidara reached it and pushed of hard launching himself into the air. Half way to the old man, he flipped around midair so that he was flying feet first towards the hokage. Seeing this Sarutobi stopped ad braced himself and when Deidaras flying mule kick caught him in the chest the Blonds momentum sent him sliding back a few feet but he managed to trap Deidara's feet to his chest using his forearm. When he was able to get a firm footing his other arm snaked out and he planted that forearm behind the artist's knees. Holding Deidara's legs tight the old man lead back raising him into the air then brought him back down slamming him into the ground. Then up again for another slam.

This time when Deidara hit the floorboards buckled and cracked. Sarutobi started to lift him again but Deidara was ready. He slammed his hands into floor above his head, dug his fingers into the wood and bit down on it with the mouths in his palms. Using the extra leverage he flipped the Hokage up over his head and slammed the man head first into the ground with a crunch.

Deidara clambered to his feet in time to see the Hokage slowly climb to his, the old man tilted his head to the side and it made a popping noise. And then whith a blur of movement the old man was on him, powerful arms pumping left, right, left, right in sharp brutal punches. The hokage kept his center of gravity low and fighting with the sort of burning intesaty that the burning leaf style Taijustsu, the Style the third himself had developed, was known for. Deidara countered the abrupt attack as best he could using the slow steady motions and sudden bone jarring strikes that his own stile, his families style was based on.

If anyone had seen the two fighting they would have seen something rare and beautiful. Something that had not occurred since the formation of the first ninja village, since the time when ninjutsu had replaced taijutsu as the central pillar of schooled combat.

They would have seen to fighters who had each mastered there art, going at it with everything they had using no fancy tricks or flashy jutsu. They would have seen the burning leaf, the physical personification of the will of fire, go head to head with the shifting of the earth the movement of the tectonic plates, and the earthquakes and other disasters they cause. For that was what the earth style, the dance of the sliding stone was based on.

The hokage and missing nin exchanged blow after blow. Neither was the fastest or strongest of there martial art but they both knew exactly what they where doing, knew every flaw and nuance in their respective styles.

It was a stalemate really, and both of them knew it. Thy where evenly matched in Taijutsu to keep going like this would get them nowhere but neither of the was willing to be the first to bring Ninjutsu into play.

Sarutobi had read the report from Iwa, and new his opponent specialized in long range area attacks. If this fight escalated to the point where the blond resorted to his more explosive abilities the village itself would be in danger.

Deidaras reservations where more self serving, true he liked this shop, it was by far the best he had been able to set up to date but he had blown his shops up and moved on when discovered before. No he didn't want that Inochi or any other jonin that might be neer by to show up and make his departure any harder than it was now.

So they stood deadlocked. It was a momentary pause in the fight nothing more, both parties taking an opportunity to catch their breath. However, that was when it happened. A creek from the back room that Deidara realized was the back door to the shop opening.

"Deidara? I'm back where are you?" it was Naruto.

The young blond came round the corner and into the, now partially destroyed front room. He stood and stared in shock at the mess he saw. The display cases which he and Deidara had so carefully stacked laying strewn across the floor. With a whip like motion he turned to Deidara.

"Deidara-nii, some mean person messed up our store!" then quickly turning to the hokage, "old man are you going to help us catch the bastard? That's why you're here right?"

Deidara and Sarutobi looked at each other for a moment and something invisible passed between them. The Tsuchikage had been a harsh, cruel man and Deidara had expected this Kage to be no different, but looking how easily naruto talked to the old man it looked like he was wrong. Deidara decided something would have to be done about the tension. Then the blond missing nin spoke bending down to pick up the shattered remains of what had once been a fruit bowl.

"hai, hai Naruto-kun well catch him, but first we should clean up a bit, yeah?" then, grinning up at the Sandame, "Isn't that right Hokage-kun?" Sarutobi shot the man a quick glare for the kun before jumping into the act.

"Yes that's right, Naruto, would you be so kind as to fetch a broom"

"Sure thing old man!" he gave a mock salute before he was off running, leaving the two s-rank ninja who had just been trying to kill each other scuttling along the floor picking up bits of pottery. For a minuet or so there was an awkward silence, and then…

"Deidara-san, after we are finished here you and I need to have a serious talk."

The artist sighed and settled back to sit on his heals,"I suppose I do owe you an explination, yeah? You want to know what I'm doing in this lovly little village of yours, yeah?"

The Hokage nodded not looking up from his work. "yes I do need to know that, however I am far more concerned with where Naruto learned the word '_Bastard_'.

Deidara gulped and quietly went back to work.

((((((((((((AN)))))))))))

well there's that next chapter wont be out tell august as I'll be in France tell then.


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